VICTORIA CROSS WINNER

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 December 1945, Page 3

VICTORIA CROSS WINNER

WORK AS HALL CLEANER. i SYDNEY, November 20. Disclosure that a man who won the Victoria Cross two years ago is working as a cleaner at Brisbane city hall is causing, criticism of repatriation methods in Australia. Ex-Private Richard Kelliher, who won the V.C. at Nadzab, New Guinea, is paid £4/17/- a week as a cleaner. In an interview, Kelliher said: “I am not complaining, but I really hoped for a more useful and interesting job. I had hoped to be trained as a painter and finally to carry on my own business.” He added that the cleaning •work was dusty and was affecting his health. While in the army he had had two bouts of malaria and two of pneumonia. Kelliher applied for a pension on the ground of war disability. He -was classed by the repatriation department as 90 per cent, fit, and was granted a pension of 5/- per week. He appealed against the assessment and is due to go before another medilal board on December 10. The bravery which won him the V.C. was that he went forward alone [three times under heavy fire to destroy a Japanese machine-gun post. The Queensland President of the Returned Soldiers’ League, Mr. R. D. Huish, said: “There seems to be something wrong with the system if a man who has won the highest decoration for bravery has to seek such employment. 1 ’ A former Sydney vice-president of the League, Mr. W. C. Allen, has offered Kelliher a job as a painter if he will come to Sydney, and says that if necessary he will pay Kelliher £6 a week while he learns the trade from-a master painter. Mr. Allen has promised to find accommodation for the V.C. and his family. “It would be a disgrace to Australia [not to provide the winner of the [highest award for gallantry with an opportunity to learn the trade of his choice,” he said.